Demoniac
by SavagexGarden
Summary: HIATUS Bored of his monotonous job in Hell, a fallen angel decides to take a bit of a 'vacation' by possessing the body of a teenager, Inuyasha. Unfotunately he doesn't understand what he's getting into when he first steps into high school. InuKag
1. Chapter 1

Demoniac

Demoniac

By: SavagexGarden

A/N: I really like this story idea; I find it cute in a subtly sinister way. The first chapter is written in first person because I wanted to make it feel like he/she is actually talking to you. But I will probably switch to third person point of view for the rest of the story unless I just fall in love with having my character talk to me. Please review and tell me what you think of my newest story, Demoniac, enjoy. I'll probably open up each chapter with a snippet from Dante's Inferno in no particular order.

Chapter One

"_The next is she who killed herself for love,  
And broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus;  
Then Cleopatra the voluptuous." _

_Helen I saw, for whom so many ruthless  
Seasons revolved; and saw the great Achilles,  
Who at the last hour combated with Love. _

_Paris I saw, Tristan; and more than a thousand  
Shades did he name and point out with his finger,  
Whom Love had separated from our life."_

Dante's Inferno Canto V

I watched Cleopatra make another lap around the whirlwind of lust. It just gets so monotonous after having to watch them whip around for eons. It happens all the time, and yet no one ever learns. So now, I'm stuck observing thousands of souls whip around and around and around. All of this monotony and torture because the young lovers woke up one day and just decided they were going to cheat on their spouses, sleep with their siblings, or kill themselves so they could be in their lover's arms for eternity. Unfortunately they can't technically be in their lover's arms since they're being whipped around forcibly by a Hellish hurricane. The things people do to get themselves landed here happen a lot more then you would assume. You're probably thinking to yourself, "Ah, that never happens anymore. People sleep with their blood siblings? Sick!" Well, I'm glad you think it's sick because apparently quite a few people haven't caught on to that yet. Of course the majority of the couples I get landed with are love suicides, regular suicides get sent down to wrath they're not _my_ responsibility, and the cheating spouses. Still, do you realize how boring it is to watch the same people twist, turn, and howl in a self-inflicted whirlwind for _eternity_? I don't even get to do anything! All I do is just sit, watch, and make sure no young couple tries to sneak out of Hell. The higher-ups generally frown upon that. (Or the lower-downs if we're talking about my boss in the 9th level.) No one has ever tried to sneak out yet though, but it's only been… oh, a few billion years.

You're probably asking yourself right about now who I am. Well let's get one thing straight that people seem to trip over all the time, I'm not technically a guy… we don't generally have genders. And you'd probably call me a demon, but I prefer the term 'fallen angel' or 'one of the fallen'. It's much more poetic then 'demon'. I don't really have a name either. I'm pretty sure I had one once, but I definitely don't go by that anymore. Now my co-workers, the other fallen, call me Luxuria. It's lust in Latin. Yea, they named me after the stupid people I am forced to endlessly observe for eternity. How sick is that?

Now this is a depressing job. We don't get any time off, benefits, pay, or even a 'thank you' from Him for all our endlessly diligent work. So I decided to take a little vacation, an unannounced vacation. But honestly, my job is kind of pointless. I make no impact on anyone's life (or afterlife) and no one ever tried to run away so what's the worst that could happen if I take a little time off? Besides no one needs to even know about it.

Now all I need is the perfect body. Someone secure but independent so I can have time alone to do whatever I want, but still have a place to sleep and have all the other human necessities available to me without having to work for it, this is a vacation after all. Yes, I need the perfect body and perfect timing.

It's not easy finding the perfect body. I'll admit that I am a very picky person. Things just have to be exactly right, or how else would I ever be able to enjoy my vacation? Who knows when someone might realize I abandoned my post and come to fetch me. I may be able to enjoy myself for years or just days. So everything has to be perfect, and so many humans have flaws that I just don't want to deal with. I decided first _not_ to choose a female's body. The female body is beautiful to me, but I know what they call having a 'period' would not make an enjoyable vacation in the slightest. All that blood, the pain, and the indignity of it… no, I just couldn't deal with it. I could pick a body that hadn't started menstruating or had stopped, but the age would be all wrong. Either the female would be far too young and her parents would control my every move or the body would be too old and I would have to deal with bills, taxes, and a husband. No, the female body just wasn't feasible for my plans.

So I started to focus on male specimens. Narrowing down the age group was my next big decision. I finally decided to find a male between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. Boys that age still live with their parents, so I don't have to worry about a job, and yet they are at an age where their parents also give them much more freedom. I chose a few appeasing candidates. All were boys that were aesthetically pleasing to me, but acted in such a way that no one in their specific communities really noticed they existed. A wallflower is the term I do believe humans use. The wallflower, or the unknown, is the key to my success. No one must realize that I have sent the boy's soul to he afterlife and taken the vacant body. See, that's where most demons go wrong. They keep the person's soul in the body with them, big mistake. That's when people start calling the priests and asking for exorcisms which are quite the nuisance.

So I watched five boys of my personal choosing, all physically attractive, a stable but independent home environment, and completely healthy, but most importantly… they were all fairly unknown. I continued to watch them, observe every aspect of their day-to-day lives and waited for the perfect timing. It was sickening how these humans take for granted every movement and moment. I promise I will thrill in every second of physical life.

Then the perfect timing presented itself to me. One of my boys, Inuyasha, was about to make a fatal error. It was time to oust his soul and take my well-earned vacation.

Inuyasha was one of my favorite boys. He didn't really have any friends and was in no after school programs. He was an unsocial boy because of a fear of rejection that probably no one understood but me. After all, he was kind of ashamed of it and preferred people to think he just didn't _want_ to be around them. His family had just moved to Tokyo (and I did just love big cities), so he really hadn't been given the chance to make any acquaintances either. The parents were perfect for what I planned to do. The father was always working and the mother didn't really want to know anything in her world was off, so she took everything at face value… never questioning. The older brother had already gone off to college too and he never called to check up on Inuyasha. Yes, his life was perfect for usurping. And as I stated before, he was the first to make a fatal error.

I won't go into too much detail about it. Let's just say the poor boy had gotten himself lost in Tokyo while trying to navigate his way home, and took the wrong alley. A man was lurking in the shadows (too cliché for my tastes) waiting for someone to get closer. Yes, I'm doing Inuyasha a favor really. His last few moments on Earth would have been filled with fear and pain had I not so nobly stepped in. The act of possession took mere seconds. It's actually quite a complicated process but I'll make it simpler by saying it was as if my immense spirit slammed into his body, pushing Inuyasha's soul out and down the tunnel of light (or whatever you humans think it is now). Then my spirit started to fill his vacant body. My soul was like liquid, seeping into every crack and crevice of his being, conforming to the shape of my new vessel. Finally, the body swelled with my soul but I had never been confined to a physical body before. I felt trapped, surrounded.

But I remembered about the man waiting for Inuyasha, for me, in the shadows and I tried to gain some control of myself and turn around to walk back onto the street. My legs felt like putty though. I had no idea how to control this mass of complex muscle; I didn't even know how to stand.

I managed to awkwardly stumble backwards into the street, falling backwards. It certainly wasn't a graceful fall in any aspect of the word, but I was out of the alley. I made no attempt to stand up. Instead, I just looked around watching through Inuyasha's eyes… my eyes. It was beautiful to see everything from this perspective, so different from my own. Oh whatever quarrel I had with Him, I cannot deny the beauty in this creation. The vibrant neon colors of light contrasting starkly with the city night shadows, the smells of the city assaulted my newly acquired nose with such a startling variation I was thrown off for a moment. Oh, and the feel of concrete against Inuyasha's body, my body, the cold night air resting like a blanket against my cheek. It was startling, it was unknown, and it was beautiful. Being a demon, a fallen angel, I never saw like this or felt like this! I was just there…

Taking my newly stolen fingers, I touched my clothes. They were so soft under the millions of nerves scattered about the surface of my fingers. Then I rubbed the concrete, the rough, painful concrete that was not nearly as enjoyable as my clothes. I was starting to slowly adjust to this body and learn how to control it. Yes, I would enjoy this vacation… as soon as I figured out how to stand up.

It took awhile, and a lot of people gave me strange looks, but I learned how to walk in Inuyasha's body. I didn't mind the strange looks though, it was the first time in eons that anyone had even acknowledged my existence. _Finally_ someone was looking at me! I wasn't the observer anymore; I was the one being observed.

The human body works in such peculiar ways. As I walked my new arms swung back and forth and breath filled my lung. The whole process of simply walking was so extraordinary to me that I could barely imagine why Inuyasha had never paused to realize every minute detail his body was performing. The boy took this body for granted. Why do people take it all for granted and throw it away on some stupid decision to end up in Hell for all eternity? What a waste of near perfection.

I knew the way to Inuyasha's home better then he did. After all, I had been watching him for weeks now. So I got on the subway, my very first subway experience, and easily found the correct stop. Actually… I'll be honest I almost missed my stop. I was just too focused on everything around me. I had always found the human body sumptuous, but now as I starred at the pretty young women sitting around me my body thought they were beautiful too. That's the only way I can think to describe how my body reacted. As I watched them curl locks of hair in their slender fingers a feeling seeped through my whole being and collected itself like a fist in Inuyasha's lower body. Was this lust? No, this wasn't right. I'd have to find lust somewhere else.

After I exited the subway, I walked down the street toward Inuyasha's new home. A home Inuyasha hadn't even begun to feel comfortable in yet. Poor boy… he shouldn't have stepped into that alley or I might have taken the young man from London instead.

But I just had a novel idea! I sat in Hell for eons wondering why humans do what they do to end up there. Maybe _I_ should experience it myself in this body, my new body. The seven deadly sins; lust, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, gluttony, and pride… yes, I'll experience them all! What can they do to me anyway? Send me to Hell? Ha, I'd love to visit the other levels for a while anyway.

A smirk stretched the muscles of my face for the first time, contorting how I must appear to others. My new hand, the left to be exact, reached out and turned the knob on the front door. Funny… Inuyasha was originally right handed but now it seems that I'm left handed. Hopefully no one will notice. The cold metal felt refreshing against my palm. Pushing open the smooth wooden door, I stepped over the threshold of the house.

Inside a woman's voice, a lovely lilting voice, called out to me. "Inuyasha, is that you?" Poor woman, she had no idea that her real son died today.

"Yea, this is Inuyasha." I called down the hall with the smirk still on my face. Smirking was something the real Inuyasha would have never done either. He didn't have the self-confidence for that kind of arrogance. But I'm the new Inuyasha, come and find me.

A/N: So what did you guys think of the first chapter? If anything was too confusing people just ask and I'll answer any of your questions. Also please, please, please **REVIEW**. They mean the world to me.


	2. Chapter 2

Demoniac

Demoniac

By: SavagexGarden

Disclaimer: (Forgot this last time… oops) I do not own any of the Inuyasha characters.

A/N: All right, let me just clear something up by saying that the human Inuyasha might as well be called Pete because he is gone and doesn't matter anymore. The fallen angel is now the Inuyasha we will all recognize from the anime. I didn't get that many reviews, which is understandable since it was the first chapter, but I would appreciate it if you all review. Anonymous reviews are accepted on this story, so please just an 'I liked it' o 'update soon' would immensely please me and motivate me to update quicker next time. Thanks in advance.

Chapter Two

"_Not foliage green, but of a dusky colour,  
Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled,  
Not apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison.  
Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense,  
Those savage wild beasts, that in hatred hold  
'Twixt Cecina and Corneto the tilled places.  
There do the hideous Harpies make their nests,  
Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades,  
With sad announcement of impending doom;  
Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human,  
And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged;  
They make laments upon the wondrous trees.__"_

Dante's Inferno Canto XIII

I had a feeling that my new 'mother' wanted to speak to me, which was why she had asked if it was Inuyasha who had entered the house, even though there was never really a doubt in her mind that it was her son. But I wasn't in the mood to talk about my day with her, which is about the only time Inuyasha and her have a conversation together. Not only did I not really know what Inuyasha had done that day, I was watching another boy in England at the time, but I wanted to explore this body a bit before going to sleep. A simple 'today was fine' would have satisfied her, but I hate lying to people. After all her old Inuyasha didn't have a fine day, he died.

So instead of walking into the living room where she was watching a reality TV show about vain girls who were competing for a profession where they would exploit their bodies for a couple years before becoming useless, I instead walked up a flight of sleek wooden stairs and into Inuyasha's room. It was a mess. Clothes, mostly darker colors such as black or navy, were strewn about the floor and furniture with no seeming order and an old, flat bottle of Pepsi sat on a dusty nightstand. In fact, everything was covered with a thin layer of dust. The sheets on the bed were twisted and pushed off the side of the bed.

Knowing that I could not possibly start to acquaint myself with my new role as Inuyasha in this filth, I started to clean up. It had appeared to be a daunting task at first, but in reality wasn't as difficult as most humans make it out to be. I started with the dirty clothes, tossing them into an empty and unused clothes hamper against the far wall. That only took a moment to do since no organizing was really involved, but tackling the clean clothes was a bit more time consuming. In the end I just ended up clumsily trying to fold them in neat squares, my manual dexterity is still kind of pathetic because fingers are just so difficult to get used to. Once all the clean clothes were folded, I placed them in near empty dresser drawers that obviously didn't get much use. The only clothes in them were neat, clean, and bright clothes that had obviously never touched Inuyasha's chest. Some of them even had the tags still attached to them with annoying plastic rings that were near impossible to remove.

Immediately, I decided that I liked the look of these new clothes better. A lot of them were very vibrant colors that attracted the eye such as fiery red like a ripe strawberry or poison green like the scales of a serpent. All the older clothes that were worn more often tended to be shadowy grays or nightly blacks. They were colors that would never purposely draw the attention of others. I, on the other hand, thrive on attention.

After putting all the clothes away, I finished cleaning the room with a quick dusting and a bit of trash collecting. There had been wads of paper and old food lying around the place making it smell horrendous. How could I possibly enjoy myself in that kind of environment had I not cleaned the place up? Even a fallen angel, like me, has some standards.

Once the room was clean enough to finally enjoy, the whole cleaning process took about an hour to accomplish, I decided to spend the remainder of my time learning how this body functioned. Sure I knew the basics of human biology; I had absorbed that information when I took over the body. Obviously the soul wasn't completely attached to the brain since I retained all of Inuyasha's memories and knowledge which would be extremely useful. But I wanted to recreate Inuyasha so that I could stop feeling as though I was pretending to be someone else and instead feel like this body and life were truly mine. The first step would be recreating his appearance to fit my personal style, that would simply involve working out a bit more (even though he was in fair shape from playing soccer in his old home) and changing the style of clothes he wore and his hair. Once this had been accomplished it wouldn't feel like old Inuyasha's hair, but _my_ hair and _my _body.

But this little necessity to feel like an individual wasn't really my main focus. I wanted to interact with people! I wanted to be noticed and liked as vain as that may sound. And as lustful as it sounds too, I wanted to have a girlfriend. I wanted someone to adore me, love me, and also to satisfy the wanting of Lust I seemed to have acquired as soon as I possessed this male body. Now the old inhabitant of this body had what I guess would be called a 'crush' on a young peer at school named Kikyo. I could understand why he _wanted_ her so much too; she was a beautiful girl with ideal features. Her long black hair was always kept perfectly straight and parted down the middle and her body was slender with enough curves to attract attention. Unfortunately, she didn't even know I existed yet. Inuyasha had been such a wallflower that he just starred at her from afar without ever approaching her except to ask an inane question in class once. Plus, the girl was kind of cold. She was popular, and I don't really understand how high school hierarchies work but for some reason she doesn't really talk to people outside her inner group of friends.

Of course just because Inuyasha had thought she was a being designed specifically by Him to be the perfect example of feminism (which is completely false because He does not have the time to design every person that gets born, seriously) doesn't mean that I have to focus on her either, but it's a good place to start until I start to meet people and expose myself a little. But all this could wait until tomorrow and my first day of school. For now I had other stuff to accomplish.

I walked across the beige carpet to a simple wooden door that led into my bathroom. It was time that I switched some stuff up, and relaxed a little. I started by taking a bath… a very long bath. I filled the tub up with hot water and just laid in it, feeling the heat just soak into my skin, until the water got uncomfortably cool before emptying the tub and refilling it again. I did this three times before mother came to the door and knocked to make sure I hadn't drowned. Note to self: human males especially don't usually spend multiple hours just sitting in a tub, which is actually a shame since it felt so good. All the muscles in my body felt relaxed and pulsed with warmth. I'd have to do this tomorrow if no one came to force me out of this body by then and back to Hell.

After getting out of the tub and wrapping a towel around my lower half like human males do when they exit the shower, I walked over to the counter and mirror. A few items lay in the drawers including combs, deodorants, a razor, tweezers, and a pair of scissors. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My hair was pitch black and impossibly long for a male's hair in this era. It hung all the way down to my lower back and rivaled the length of most women's hair. This would have to be the first thing to change. I grabbed a rubber band that was lying nearby and pulled my hair back into a ponytail right at the base of my neck. Taking the scissors that I had discovered in the drawer, I took a deep breath (unnerved for some reason) and let the sharp edges rest against my hair. Letting out a nervous sigh, I unconsciously closed my eyes (must be a human reaction) and pressed the handles of the scissors together. The noise was unbearable; the shearing sound seemed to last forever as I continued to cut through the hair mercilessly. Finally it was over and a long clump of hair, held together by the rubber band, fell to the ground. It must have been over a foot long…

I noticed the immediate change when I glanced into the mirror again. The ebony hair fell loose around my face, ending just an inch above my shoulders. It didn't look quite right though, like it was just too unnaturally straight and uneven. Maybe I shouldn't have done this by myself… Letting out a sigh at my first human failure, I walked back into my new room and slipped into some sweatpants and an old shirt that felt comfortable against my still damp skin. Then I left my room to find my new mother. Women were generally much better at fixing hair then men, right? Well at this point any human would probably know more then I did.

After walking down the stairs again I headed to the living room were my mother was still sitting on the couch watching TV. Now it was on a news channel. "Mother? Can you help me?"

My mother, Izayoi was her name but she would probably be startled if I called her that, turned around to acknowledge me but seemed shocked by my attempted haircut. She just starred at it for a moment with her mouth hanging open until she apparently found her voice again. "Inuyasha, what did you do to your hair?" She was on her feet by the end of this sentence and walking toward me, one hand outstretched to touch the uneven ends of my hair.

For some reason I was nervous again. I didn't want her to be upset with me, I wanted my new mother to like me, love me, as most mothers should. Had I disappointed her by doing something so apparently foolish? "I tried to cut my hair, but it doesn't look right. What should I do?"

Izayoi suddenly smiled and let out a little, quiet laugh. I found her amusement contagious and felt myself smiling a little too. "Well of course it doesn't look right, dear. You can't just attack it with a pair of house scissors and expect it to come out looking like a professional had done it." Her dark eyes moved away from my hair and looked directly at me. Suddenly I felt afraid that she might notice that I was not her son by starring at me so directly in the eyes. Humans like to think that the eyes are a mirror into the soul. Would she notice my black soul instead of her son's?

"Can we fix it?" I asked hopefully, trying to distract her from focusing so intently on my face.

She glanced back at my hair and smiled again. I liked it when she smiled; it was as if all her features started to glow. "I think I can fix this without too much trouble. I might have to trim it a bit shorter then it is now to even it all out, but let me grab my shearing scissors out of my bathroom and we'll get started. Come on." She motioned for me to follow her and I did. She led me into a larger bathroom then mine next to her bedroom and motioned for me to sit down on the edge of the bathtub. I did as I was told to do. After a bit of shuffling through drawers, she came up with a much smaller pair of scissors and walked over to me. "Ok Inuyasha. I don't know what got into you today," I winced slightly at that thinking that apparently a demonic soul had 'gotten into' her son today, "but let's see what we can do."

It took about half an hour, but I was glad I had asked for help by the end of it all. Looking into my mirror awhile after my mother had finished and sent me upstairs to go to bed, I noticed that the hair was now a few inches above my shoulders and in layers so that it stuck out in a neat, but messy, look. I liked the shaggy haircut a lot it suited _me_.

I stayed up until around midnight practicing writing and other human motions before the body started to shut down on me. At first everything seemed to get blurry and move slowly. Then my eyelids started to feel unusually heavy and I unconsciously crawled into the bed, pulling the comforter around me. I was terrified at first that maybe the body was finally rejecting me like I was a bad blood transfusion, like it knew that I wasn't its match. But then I fell asleep for the first time since I was created I slept.

The next morning I woke up felt strange. For a moment I had forgotten where I was, that I was confined to a physical form, and that I had dreamt. I tried in vain to remember my first dream, but the thoughts felt like liquid that just seeped through the cracks of my restricted human mind. The dream had something to do with a baby and abduction, which was all I could remember. After lying in bed for a little while longer, I decided to get ready for school. It normally only took Inuyasha five or so minutes to get ready, but I wanted to look good on my first day so I spent the next half an hour or so picking out clothes, taking a shower, eating breakfast (it was amazing all the different flavors available in this life), and other morning routine classics. I left the house for school in a bright red t-shirt, never worn, and a pair of comfortable, faded blue jeans. I hadn't been able to tame my new, shaggy haircut so I let it remain in a soft mess.

The high school, Tenkei High School, was within walking distance and I had mastered the use of my legs by now so I figured I would enjoy myself more by walking. It took a little longer then I had expected, but I managed to get to the school with plenty of time to spare. Teenagers were strewn across the whole place. A group of athletic males, typically called jocks by other humans, were leaning against a red car talking. A few kids were sitting at a bench talking about schoolwork with a bit too much enthusiasm then is normal for the average teenager. I assumed their peers labeled them geeks. Many more students were just milling around either talking outside or heading inside the school to meet up with friends. I felt utterly alone, realizing that there was no one in this school waiting for me or wanting to see me. I felt as if I was the ignored fallen angel of hell all over again, except this time I wasn't in charge.

That's when I saw Kikyo for the first time through my eyes. She was wearing a tank top that showed off an ample amount of flesh and tight, dark jeans. Her lipstick was shocking red against her pale features and she was laughing at something her friend had just whispered in her jeweled ear. Kikyo was standing beside the door that I would have to cross to get into my first period class. Before I could start to feel nervous though, the warning bell rang and she slipped into the building with her friends.

Not wanting to make a bad impression on my official first day of school, I also hurried up the entrance steps and into my first period class. Normally Inuyasha would pick a seat in the very back of the class where hopefully the teacher wouldn't notice him sleeping. Today though, I picked a spot a bit closer. I didn't want to make such a drastic change as moving to the very front of the class, so instead I picked a seat next to the window in the center aisle. Inuyasha never really paid much attention to what other people in the class were doing so I wasn't positive if someone already claimed this seat, but I was pretty sure that it had been empty all year.

Apparently the seat right next to it was taken as a young woman with long dark hair started toward the desk. Her hair was so black that it appeared blue in the perfect lighting and her eyes were a deep, chocolate brown. She was talking to another young woman with long, brown hair tied into a ponytail when she noticed me. At first the girl, Inuyasha didn't know her name so neither did I, seemed taken aback by my sudden switch on the normal high school routine. But after a brief halt, she smiled shyly at me and sat down. I decided that now would be a good time to expand my social circle (with was empty currently). "Hi, my name's Inuyasha. I moved here two weeks ago."

For a moment, I was nervous that she would ignore me but then she spoke quietly while her unnamable friend watched from the desk on her other side. "I'm Kagome. It's nice to finally meet you." She smiled a bit before continuing her conversation with the other girl. I didn't really care though; I had made my first move at establishing myself here.

Maybe Inuyasha had been looking for love in all the wrong places when he set his sights on the popular Kikyo. Maybe there was a much better prospect in front of him the whole time. Now… how do you win the affections of a teenage girl? I hadn't the slightest idea where to start, so I figured I should ask an expert on women, someone who was notorious at the school for being a 'womanizer'. I don't know exactly what a 'womanizer' is, but it sounds like someone who knows a lot about women. His name is Miroku, and I do believe he sits beside me in my next class.

A/N: All right, there was chapter two. Please tell me what you thought! A quick review would make my day perfect and motivate me to update.


	3. Chapter 3

Demoniac

Demoniac

By: SavagexGarden

Disclaimer: I do not own the Inuyasha characters.

A/N: I AM THE WORST AUTHOR EVER! I am so sorry it's been an insanely long time since I updated. It's just this last month of school has been hectic… I am so sorry! Please forgive me.

Chapter Three

_I found my Guide, who had already mounted  
Upon the back of that wild animal,  
And said to me: "Now be both strong and bold. _

_Now we descend by stairways such as these;  
Mount thou in front, for I will be midway,  
So that the tail may have no power to harm thee." _

_Such as he is who has so near the ague  
Of quartan that his nails are blue already,  
And trembles all, but looking at the shade; _

Even such became I at those proffered words;  
But shame in me his menaces produced,  
Which maketh servant strong before good master.

_I seated me upon those monstrous shoulders;  
I wished to say, and yet the voice came not  
As I believed, "Take heed that thou embrace me."_

Dante's Inferno Canto XVII

As soon as the bell rang to signal the end of first period, I was on my feet and out the door eager to meet this master of women named Miroku. I wasn't sure when he would enter the classroom since Inuyasha normally hesitated to the last possible moment before going to class usually having an internal battle with himself on whether he would just go home early or continue his lessons. Really, the boy had been quite apathetic about his future.

Upon entering the room, I was immediately aware that there were two others in the room already, which was quite strange since I had skipped attending my locker just to get into the room first. They seemed to be in the middle of a conversation that was quite uncomfortable to the female. It seemed that way at least because even though the young man was smiling charmingly, the young woman was blushing profusely. I let out a muted sigh and sat down in the middle of the room again finding a surprising desire to eavesdrop on the young couple. Humans generally frown upon eavesdropping though as an invasion of privacy, but to be damned what people thought was right or wrong. He was a fallen angel damn it and if he couldn't do a few disreputable things then who could? With this fresh thought of rebellion in my mind, I leaned back a little and listened in on the conversation taking place just a few desks away.

"But Ayuki, let's be civil here…" The man's voice faded away as his lovely lady companion cut him off abruptly and quite rudely.

Her voice was lowered and husky in well-contained contempt. "Don't you try to calm me down Roku! I saw you with that… that little hussy. If I weren't so forgiving!" Ayuki hissed out. I could have laughed at that last statement though for the girl certainly did not sound very forgiving. Dear girl, envy is a sin that is currently pressed inside your small frame.

The boy's voice was infuriatingly calm and nonchalant in the face of womanly fury. "Ayuki, I'm a young man in my prime. What harm is a little flirting going to do? And calling Sango a hussy certainly isn't very sweet of you." His voice took on the tone of an older relative gently admonishing a child for a small slight.

"Like I care what you think is sweet of me or not!" The girls' voice was reaching new levels of volume in her spite. "We're over Miroku! If I can't be everything to you, then I might as well be nothing." She swiped her books off the desk and stomped furiously out of the room. I smiled slightly; wrath wasn't exactly smiled upon either.

Before I was able to continue the masquerade of a simple student who had naively missed the whole argument, Miroku slipped into the seat beside me with a devilish grin on his features. And I should know what real devilish grins looks like. "She's quite the jealous girl don't you agree? Oh, if only I could find a nice girl, a cute girl too, who didn't get so fidgety every time I innocently flirt with someone else. Wouldn't that be heaven?"

So this was Miroku, the master of women huh? Well he didn't seem to be having such an easy time with his girls today. "I highly doubt you'll find a girl willing to share you with her friends. Envy is a very difficult sin to avoid."

Miroku seemed a little surprised by the answer. Perhaps he had expected me to agree with him on the matter, not that I disagreed with having multiple lovers. The concept had been quite acceptable for eons before this particular era. And besides, men with multiple lovers usually ended up spending a few eternities with him anyway. But Miroku suddenly started laughing. "Man, maybe we should introduce ourselves first before talking about sin? Really, it's not the most settling of conversations for I am pretty sure I'm on my way straight to hell." Miroku just chuckled a bit at that, but I didn't find it very funny at all. "My name's Miroku by the way, and you are?"

"Inuyasha." I answered automatically like I had been going by that name forever. "And I know who you are, people say you're a womanizer."

Miroku placed a hand on his chest as if he had just been dealt a fatal blow through the heart and mockingly gasped. "People call me a womanizer? Why I've never been so insulted in my life! I prefer to be called a connoisseur of femininity." He winked playfully at me after the statement and I couldn't help but smile a bit at his antics. This Miroku person was a lively person to be around for sure.

"Whatever you feel like calling it doesn't exactly change what you are does it?" I asked coolly, leaning forward a little with my chin resting on my fist. A smirk, which was quickly becoming signature for me, was planted on my features.

"You wound me Inuyasha." Miroku stated with mock aghast. He changed the subject abruptly though. "You're new here right? We've had this class together for a little while now but this may be the first time I've talked to you." Miroku mused for a moment.

"Yea I'm new and I was kind of hoping to get your help on a little situation." I stated vaguely, pleased to notice Miroku's eyebrows arc slightly and his frame turned toward me in subtle signs on intrigue.

"You want my help?" His tone was one of a person trying to feign uncaring in a subject to which he was actually quite curious. Before I could respond with my plea for Miroku's help in seeking the lust my impure soul ached for, the bell to begin class rang. To my surprise, everyone was already in the classroom. I hadn't even noticed them entering the room while having my brief conversation with Miroku. Miroku tapped his desk to attract my attention again. "We'll talk after school, ok?" He mouthed quietly to me. I just nodded and turned to listen to my second period lectures.

The next two periods went by in a flurry of new experiences. I talked to a few other people, but no one of any real interest at all. The only reason I talked to them was so that I could revel in the variances of voices. Some people had low voices that sounded very masculine on young men and sultry on girls. Then some of the younger girls had sweet lilting voices that peaked and dived in high pitches and piercing whispers. It seemed strange that I've spent two hours just listening, but humans take that for granted when they are blessed with the hearing they were bestowed upon since birth. For him, it was like making a deaf man suddenly able to hear after a lifetime of silence.

And by the time lunch rolled around, I was eager to experience new flavors even though other kids in the school moped about the cafeteria food in the line in front of me. But what I wasn't expecting was a new emotion that I hadn't truly experienced before to swell inside me like a boar.

A young man, whose name had escaped me, walked contemptuously up to me and irritably cleared his throat beside me. I glanced over at the boy, who was slightly taller then me, and gave him a blank stare indicating that I had acknowledged him but didn't really care about what he had to say (or at least that is what I think a blank stare means… really I must study human body language a bit more). He was interrupting my eager anticipation for new foods and I was not pleased with that at all. "I heard you were making a move on Kagome." The boy huffed angrily.

For a moment, I was so caught up in the sound of his voice, the dark arrogant quality of the sound, that what he was actually saying escaped me. That is… until a sweet voice I had heard earlier on that day answered the boy before I could. "Koga, he was not 'making a move' on me at all. Inuyasha was just introducing himself so stop picking fights with people." I turned to look at the body that possessed this voice; already knowing the petite girl with ebony hair would be standing behind me. She was so cute with her small hands placed obstinately on her hips and her pink lips pressed tight together in agitation. Why was she agitated again?

"Stop standing up for the bastard and let him answer for himself!" Oh yea, I thought numbly, I had almost forgotten about this Koga character that was rudely glaring down at me and taking up the time I should be spending with food. Kagome was rather cute when she was angry… "Well what do you have to say for yourself?" Koga stated furiously.

"What is your problem? Am I not allowed to say three words to Kagome? Since when was she your property?" I muttered coolly to the angry black-haired boy before me.

This didn't seem to be the answer he was looking for because suddenly he stepped closer to me and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt angrily. "Don't speak to me like that again! She's my girl and I don't like you hanging around her like a puppy so don't talk to her again, got it?" By this time a few people around them had turned to watch the spectacle, obviously confrontations were a sick form of entertainment in high school.

Before I could respond Kagome, who was furious at Koga pretending like she wasn't standing right there, spoke up angrily. "I am not yours Koga! How many times do I have to say it, so put Inuyasha down and let everyone get on with lunch." She hissed at him, obviously embarrassed at being the center of an argument in the cafeteria. Personally, I thought going back to getting food sounded fabulous but Koga was on a different page then me obviously.

"Shut up Kagome and let me put this bastard in his place!" Koga suddenly snapped at Kagome, who looked quite taken aback by the outburst. She took a step back in shock, her brown eyes wide with surprise and a bit of hurt.

A feeling seemed to possess my body at that moment which was completely foreign to anything I had felt before. It felt like a burning deep inside me that couldn't be soothed by deep breaths or a moment to cool down. The burning seeped into my brain too and caused me to clench down on my teeth in maddening attempts ease this feeling but it didn't seem to be working that well because the burning just intensified. I couldn't control it, and a part of me was terrified that an emotion could control my body so completely. But I was furious that someone would speak to an unsuspecting girl like that, she looked so frightened in that moment after Koga snapped at her.

And without another thought, the burning inside me was suddenly quenched as my fist connected with Koga's left eye. He let out a cry of pain and surprise as his hands suddenly dropped from my now wrinkled shirt and he staggered backward for a moment, but only for a moment. In a burst of surprising speed, Koga had leapt back and pulled me into a fight that I should have seen coming because apparently everyone else in the cafeteria saw it coming as they jumped to their feet to get a better look.

Fights are absolute dizzying affairs I realized as I sat in the principal's office after being pulled away from my enemy by a few teachers and dragged down here. Beside me Koga slouched in his seat furiously while I had a swollen eye that stung painfully, a lip that was bleeding profusely, and a few bruises. Koga wasn't looking much better off though. His left eye was swollen shut and a feeling of sick pride swept through my frame as I noticed that. I tuned out the principal's rant about disgraceful behavior and focused on my body. The stinging pain from some of the bruises was absolutely excruciating, but at the same time sickly delightful to me. The pain was something I had never felt before, and it was an experience I was glad to have known before being sent back to hell and yet hopeful that I would not repeat in the near future.

My sentence for brawling in school was that I was to be sent home immediately and given detention for a while. A part of me was upset that I would miss out on any more eye-opening experiences in my last two periods of class and yet that pride still burned in me. I was dismissed a little before Koga, probably just to make sure we weren't alone in the halls together. Sighing, I started toward the front doors that I had walked through earlier that morning for the first time. Someone was waiting for me on the doorframe though, a small foot tapping impatiently against the linoleum flooring.

"Hey Inuyasha. What's your sentence?" I smiled a little as Kagome looked at me through a half smile and dancing eyes. She tsked suddenly and held out a hand as I stepped up beside her. "That doesn't look pleasant. You should put some ice on that eye as soon as you get home."

I nodded halfheartedly, not wanting her hand to slip away from me yet. I found physical contact entrancing. "I'll be sure to do that. And I think I just have some detention." I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Koga wasn't out of the office yet. Was she waiting for him or me?

"Why'd you hit Koga?" Kagome said with a small sigh, like a mother trying to get an explanation out of an erring son.

"Because he yelled at you." I ran a hand nervously through my hair as she sent me a startled look. "And I just couldn't help myself. I felt so angry with him, like I could break every bone in his body and not regret it for a second. It just… I couldn't control myself. I've never felt that way before, I didn't know what to do." And that was the truth. I had never had human emotions before, or if I had they had been dulled and abandoned by years serving in hell. They were so confusing.

Kagome smiled up at him softly. "Everyone loses control every once in awhile. At least no one was seriously hurt." She stood up straight, no longer leaning against the doorframe. "But don't feel like you need to stand up for me Inuyasha. I'm a big girl, and I can handle possessive guys like Koga just fine." She started to walk back down the hall toward the class she was supposed to be in at the moment. I started to feel embarrassed that I had gotten into a fight that she thought was foolish. She'd never sleep with me now… "Oh Inuyasha." My head snapped to look at her as she stood facing me down the hall. "It was sweet of you to stand up for me though, I'll see you tomorrow." And with that she was gone.

My heart swelled suddenly. Not only with the fact that she might still sleep with me yet (which did contribute to the good mood quite a bit) but also because I had experienced a small taste of sin! That burning I had felt with Koga, the sudden losing on my temper must be what a small dose of wrath feels like. Wanting to severely harm another human being, yes that had to be wrath. Plus pride had managed to weasel itself into the mix too, sick pride at that for hurting someone badly and being proud of that fact. With renewed spirits I left the school eagerly waiting the next day when I would see Kagome again. And tonight I would be talking to Miroku about how he may help me win over Kagome completely. My spirit was soaring in ecstasy.

A/N: I know it was kind of short… only 5 pages. But I wrote it in only two and a half hours because I am in quite a rush. See, I'm leaving for Italy for two weeks tomorrow so I'm trying to update this story and Frostbite before I leave. Since I updated Frostbite most recently of the two stories, I decided to write this one first. Hopefully it doesn't reek of something rushed though… PLEASE REVIEW! I'd like to know what you think so far. Oh, I do hope it doesn't sound rushed…


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